Can't Hold Back the Clock
by littlemisshaleybug
Summary: Julia, the young love of Rabbit's steam powered life, had died of exhaustion after years of struggling on her own, leaving Rabbit to find out when a couple of unexpected guests arrive at the manor. However, Julia has left something far more precious than a music box behind this time, a piece of her that just might be enough to lift the spirits of a few broken robots.


How badly I wanted things to go back to they way they once were.

I didn't listen when the mistress informed us of what had happened. It wasn't something I wanted to hear again.

How could she be gone? No... No, she couldn't be gone... Not the little angel I had loved. Not the golden haired baby that I had danced with, sung to, held so close...

"Rabbit."

No, she wasn't gone, she had to just be missing. Where could she be? I had to find her, I had to get her back, no one else could do it.

"Rabbit!"

Yes, that was what I would do, I'd go to that place, where they said she was. There had to be something there that would lead me to finding her, to bringing her home, to changing her back into the little girl that I could once again tuck in and pinch her cheeks and hug her tightly and-

"RABBIT _SNAP OUT OF IT!"_

Seeing my surroundings for the first time since I had been told the news, I found myself standing with my metal fists clenched so badly the joints were shaking and squeaking from the strain. A brother bot I should have recognized was holding my shoulders and shaking me, swaying in that more organic that I way that he did. His deep brow was glowering at me with intense worry.

"What? W-w-what's going on..."

"Rabbit you have to keep yourself together. Just focus on something, can you do that? _Try. _Please, focus on _something."_

"What's going on? I do not understand," There was a bronze shine to my right, with a familiar voice I could not place. "Is Rabbit malfunctioning again?"

The tall silver bot grasping me said something in reply, but my auditory receptors didn't catch it and I ended up staring off into space again.

She couldn't be gone, no... She was too beautiful, too perfect, too wonderful... How could she be gone? Would I never get to see that freckled face again? Were those sweet lips never to kiss my cold metal cheek again? She was too sweet, too kind, to lovely... No, she just couldn't be gone, I wouldn't believe it! She wouldn't be so selfish as to just die like that!

The next time I came to my senses I was sitting in one of Pete's studies in an arm chair. There was something huge and white in the corner of the room, watching me, but I hardly even glanced at it. My memory hard drive was malfunctioning, no doubt from some kind of shock, so I handled everything that came to me one at a time. Legs, hes they were still working, so I could stand. Oh, balance right. After falling on my side I realized I needed to balance myself, so I slowly rose to my feet once more and held myself steady.

I wandered down the hall aimlessly, pleading for the clock to turn back and take me back to that first time I had sung and seen that sweet little girl with the missing front teeth.

* * *

We didn't know how the message had gotten to the mansion, but all the same the email had gotten to Pete, and he'd told Annie to tell me. It only took seconds for the Spine and QWERTY to trace the information and find out that it was true, but the email address that had been used didn't seem to have any connections with anything. That was, until a second email was sent.

"Rabbit? Would you please come here dear?"

I had since recovered from my shock, but I knew what it wwas about from the Walter Wifi, so I wasn't happy about coming and talking about it more. I just wanted to go back to the attic and not come down.

"A second email ha-"

"Yeah yeah I kn-kn-know. What's up with the girly now?"

Annie seemed hurt that I interrupted her, but she just continued. "I've discovered some more news about Julia that you may want to know."

"What more can there be? She's dead."

"Rabbit please, this is very important. You cared about Julia a lot, I understand, but don't you think you'd like to hear what it is the email says?"

I was about to object, but then I saw the Spine swaying like he always did in the corner, watching me with that sad expression, his fists at his sides. He as been the only one to know about Julia, about how deeply I cared, how attached to her I had become and how much it killed me that she had stopped coming to the shows so long ago. Spine knew better than I did, and so if I didn't need to be here he would have said somehting, so I ground my teeth with a small creak of metal and waited.

"Rabbit, she was sick. There was nothing anyone could do about it, but you should be happy she isn't in any more pain."

That was it? I turned away to leave because this wasn't worth my time. "Lady that's not makin' me feel better so if that's all you've gotta say I''m blowin this popsicle st-"

"Rabbit she had a child."

I stopped my seltence at that, and slowly turned back to face the lady of the house with my body shaking for reasons I didn't understand. "What...?"

"A little girl. And she's all alone..." Annie stood up from her desk, closing her lap top, and Spine stopped swaying since apparently he hadn't known this either. "The man Julia married, he left her alone after she had the child. That was why she died, a broken heart, and working herself to the bone to take care of this lovely little girl."

A kid? Normally I didn't care for most kids, they screamed and cried and were rude and stupid, but if this one was anything like Julia... No. No one could be Julia. No one could be my golden haired angel.

"What's it to me?"

"Well wouldn't you like to see her?"

I looked down at my dress, which hadn't been attended to in quite some time, so it was dirty and ripped. I hadn't let anyone fix or clean it. "she's not Julie, what'do I care?"

"She's a little piece of Julia that's still alive, and I hear she's such a sweet girl."

"Rabbit." The spine stepped forward now, and I looked up at him with a raised brow, though I didn't feel as firey as I looked. "Pete's decided to take her in. She has no other family, Julia lost her parents some time ago, and the father's family doesn't want anything to do with her."

"Why is that our problem?"

"It isn't a problem Rabbit, it is a duty." There was sadness in Annie's voice. "Julia donated a lot of money to Walter Robotics over the years. She was also a close friend of _all_ the robots, besides Hatchworth of course. I expected you to be happy about helping Julia out in this way."

I should have been happy to help her. I.. God I loved her, so very much, but...

"She killed her..."

"What?"

"That THING you call a child killed her! She was selfish! She made her work so hard she got sick, then she died!"

"Rabbit please, you're being irrational!"

The Spine cut in again. "Rabbit she is six years old. You understand children better than anyone at that age, do you really think she wanted her mother to die?"

A long, thick silence hung in the air, tension so volumous one could taste it in the air. It was a foul flavor.

Finally Annie let out a tired sigh and shook her head, her hair swaying. "Peter has already settled everything. The little girl will be picked up in two days from the orphanage and then given a room with a door here at the manor."

There was no point in arguing, so I just stared at the floor in a motionless state only a robot could pull off, letting the mistress walk past me and toward the door, with The Spine coming up to stand by my side. But as his hand rested on my metal shoulder a spark of question his me and I lifted my head.

"Annie!"

The aged woman stopped and turned back to face me, inquirey in her blue eyes.

"What's the girl's name?"

I didn't know why I felt like I needed to know this. It made no difference either way, but that was the thing about us robots, we never did what you expected us to do. So I let the need of knowing grasp me, and wouldn't let the mistress out of my gaze until I got my answer.

"Her name is Josephine."

* * *

(Hey guys! This is a fan fiction idea I've had for a long time, but only now really had a window of opportunity to work on. This entire fanfiction is based on the little story within the song "Turn Back the Clock" By Steam powered Giraffe. Julia is an actual character in the universe, however Josephone purely exists in this AU. Any feedback is helpful, and I'd love to hear your opinions on characterization and/or setting placement.)


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